NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (1-1) opened the regular season with a pair of non-district road matchups against region foes Nolensville (0-1) and Brentwood (2-0-1) on Thursday and Saturday. 

Against Nolensville, Shelbyville Central persevered in an eight-goal affair, 5-3. Fernando Gallardo scored two of his four goals early to give the visitors a 2-0 lead in the first half. His first goal, and Shelbyville’s first goal of the young campaign, came off an assist from Carlos Velazquez. Gallardo connected across his body to hammer it home past the Knight’s goalkeeper, and then minutes later Gallardo both drew and converted a penalty to double the Golden Eagles’ lead.

Nolensville was able to draw level later in the first half from pressing and taking advantage of some wayward passing from the visitors, followed by a goal from a corner kick to send the game to halftime level at 2-2. 

In the second half, Emmanuel Leyva won the ball high up the pitch, stealing possession away from a Knights’ centerback and was able to dribble past the hosts’ goalkeeper for a calm finish that put the Golden Eagles back in front, 3-2. Minutes later, Gallardo completed his hat-trick, winning another penalty in the box thanks to some nifty dribbling and converted the spot-kick to double Shelbyville’s lead again, 4-2. Finally, Gallardo headed in his fourth and final goal of the match from a Leyva delivery on a corner kick to secure the season-opening victory for Shelbyville. Nolensville tacked on a late goal to make the final score 5-3. 

“We held the majority of the ball and created a ton of dangerous attacks,” Shelbyville head coach Chris Fritz said postgame, “but our defense still has work to do with tightening up and settling down in emergency situations.”

On Saturday, in a rematch of last season’s Region 5-AAA Semifinal, Shelbyville traveled to take on the Brentwood Bruins for their annual regular season matchup, falling 3-1. The Golden Eagles, still nursing injuries to multiple starters stemming from the preseason, struggled to generate the same kind of offensive success they saw against Nolensville on Thursday. 

Despite the Bruins knocking on the door for just about the entire first half, Shelbyville was able to preserve the clean sheet going into halftime at 0-0. In the second half, the visitors started to generate some half-chances in attack, but the Brentwood pressure snuffed out every attack. 

Minutes later, Brentwood was able to poke home the first goal of the game off of a mad scramble inside the Shelbyville penalty area to take a 1-0 lead, then added a second from a corner resulting in an incredible overhead kick before Carlos Valenzuela pulled one goal back for Shelbyville with a left-footed long-range effort to cut the lead in half, 2-1. However, Brentwood added their third and final goal of the game with an impeccable finish from outside the 18-yard box themselves. 

“We reached deep into our bench for this match, but we have to continue to work on our movements and decisions,” Fritz explained postgame. “The ceiling for this team is high if we can keep everyone healthy and clean up our game with the ball.”

“The positive is the experience we will bring into district play next week at Columbia.”

Shelbyville moved to 1-1 on the season with a quick turnaround on Tuesday as District 9-AAA play begins on the road at Columbia Central.